V5R3 CL Programming Enhancements, Part 1

March 17, 2004 Ted Holt

In the October 10, 2003, issue of Midrange Guru, I said I doubted that the good folks at IBM would ever enhance the CL programming language. Well, I was wrong. I recently had a long phone conversation with one of those good folks, and he told me what IBM is doing to beef up CL programming in V5R3. I liked what I heard, and I hope you’ll be as happy as I was to hear the news.

I’m going to tell you about what’s new with declarations, looping structures, and selection structures. The rest will have to wait until

Using ‘New’ SQL Data Types in RPG

March 17, 2004 Raymond Everhart

As RPG programmers, we have become very comfortable with character, zoned, and packed decimal data types. Occasionally, when dealing with APIs or subprocedures, we’ve been forced to dabble with binary numbers or variable length strings. More recently some of us have started taking advantage of the strengths of the date, time, and timestamp data types supported in RPG IV. And just when we think we’ve got it all covered, we find out that DB2 supports even more data types.

DB2 supports data types that are seldom used by iSeries programmers. However, since C or Java programmers may create tables (or

Why Use the Magic Number in Qshell Scripts?

March 17, 2004 Hey, Ted

I have not worked with Unix, so Qshell is a new adventure for me. I am curious about the “magic number,” the #! comment that shell scripts typically begin with. It appears to me that Qshell doesn’t care whether you include the comment. Is that true? If so, is there a reason why I should include the magic number?

–Jim

It’s true. Take a look at the process Qshell goes through to execute a script.

When you type a script name and press Enter, Qshell starts a new job and asks the system to run the script. The system reads

Admin Alert: The Absolute Coolness of the QNTC File System

March 17, 2004 Joe Hertvik

Because most OS/400 shops also have Windows servers, IBM provides tools to integrate Windows data and objects with OS/400 applications, including the little understood but immensely valuable QNTC file system. QNTC allows OS/400 processes to access Windows server data from OS/400 applications just as if those processes resided on a Windows client machine.

Like QDLS and QSYS.LIB, QNTC is an OS/400-based file system that resides in a subsection of OS/400’s Integrated File System (IFS). But where most other IFS file systems provide access to data that physically resides on your iSeries or AS/400 box, QNTC provides access to data and

OS/400 Alert: Major Outlook 2002 Vulnerability Discovered

March 17, 2004 Shannon O'Donnell

In this week’s “OS/400 Alert,” we’ll tell you about a major new vulnerability in Outlook 2002 that Microsoft has announced. Microsoft Windows Media Services are also being targeted. In addition to these latest threats, as usual, there are a number of major viruses floating around the Web that you should be aware of.

OUTLOOK 2002 VULNERABILITY FOUND

On March 9, Microsoft issued a Critical Security Warning for users of Outlook 2002. On March 10, Microsoft issued an additional warning about this same security exposure. What happened is that Microsoft discovered a vulnerability in Outlook 2002 that can allow Internet Explorer